Stratocaster Guitars

This lightweight "dream" guitar weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a comfortable nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Three-piece alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout and finished in two-tone Sunburst (black to yellow). One-piece fretted maple neck with a wonderfully huge "'57 soft "V" profile. Maple fretboard, almost unplayed with 21 original small frets, and black dot position markers. Small headstock with decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in gold with black trim, "STRATOCASTER" in black beside it, "WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO" in black below it, and with "ORIGINAL Contour Body" decal at the ball end of the headstock. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped inside: "D-169400 / Patent No."). Single "butterfly" string tree. Four-bolt neck plate with the serial number (-17878") between the top two screws. Three white 'bakelite'-covered black-bottom single-coil pickups with staggered polepieces and nicely balanced outputs of 5.71k, 5.52k and 5.65k. Single-layer white plastic pickguard (.080 inches thick) with eight screws. Three controls (one volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on the lower treble side of the pickguard. White plastic Stratocaster knobs with gold lettering. Fender "Synchronized Tremolo" combined bridge/tailpiece (six-pivot bridge/vibrato unit with through-body stringing). The neck has a pencil mark of "7-57," and the middle pickup cavity has a pencil mark of "5-57". The potentiometers are stamped "304 715" and "304 720" (Stackpole, April and May 1957). This totally original guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition, with virtually no finish checking, light fret wear and almost no wear to the maple fret board. There are two small areas of light wear on the lower bass edge of the body and a very small amount of belt-buckle scarring on the back - not through to the wood. There are a few small surface chips/indentations on the body, some very light pick scarring on the top of the body by the treble horn and a few very small surface marks on the back of the neck. This fifty-three year old guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Complete with the original tremolo arm. Housed in a slightly later (1959) Fender Stratocaster brown hardshell case with brown leather ends and orange plush lining (9.00).

"The Stratocaster was launched during 1954 [and was priced at $249.50, or $229.50 without vibrato]...The new Fender guitar was the first solidbody electric with three pickups [Gibson's electric-acoustic ES-5, introduced five years earlier, had been the overall first], meaning a range of fresh tones, and featured a new-design vibrato unit that provided pitch-bending and shimmering chordal effects. The new vibrato -- erroneously called a 'tremolo' by Fender and many others since -- was troublesome in development. But the result was the first self-contained vibrato unit: an adjustable bridge, a tailpiece, and a vibrato system, all in one. It wasn't a simple mechanism for the time, but a reasonably effective one...Fender's new vibrato had six bridge-pieces, one for each string, adjustable for height and length, which meant that the feel of the strings could be personalized and the guitar made more in tune with itself...The Strat came with a radically sleek, solid body, based on the outline of the 1951 Fender Precision Bass. Some musicians had complained to Fender that the sharp edge of the Telecaster's body was uncomfortable...so the Strat's body was contoured for the player's comfort. Also, it was finished in a yellow-to-black sunburst finish. Even the jack socket mounting was new, recessed in a stylish plate on the body face...the Fender Stratocaster looked like no other guitar around especially the flowing, sensual curves of that beautifully proportioned, timeless body. The Stratocaster's new-style pickguard complemented the lines perfectly, and the overall impression was of a guitar where all the components ideally suited one another. The Fender Stratocaster has since become the most popular, the most copied, the most desired, and very probably the most played solid electric guitar ever" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 18).

"The 1957 Fender Stratocaster is considered a 'classic' year by most with its two-tone sunburst finish on an Alder body wood with a Maple 'V' neck. The change in plastic from 'bakelite' (polystyrene) to ABS took place in the spring of 1957. Though I personally like the look and feel of 'Bakelite' plastic better, it is far more fragile and often broken or missing. Serial number range for the 57 Fender Stratocaster are generally 16000 to 25000 (some numbers with a '0' or '-' prefix on the neck plate)…Spring 1957 Fender Stratocaster guitar specs: ABS plastic knobs and pickup covers replace 'bakelite' (Polystyrene). Many spring 1957 Strats have a mix of Bakelite and ABS parts, with ABS pickup covers yet bakelit knobs - this happened because the bakelite pickup covers ran out of stock first, so for a month or two of production some 1957 Strats can have ABS pickup covers and bakelite knobs). Most 1957 Strats have a neck with a 'strong V' backshape" (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/57strat.html).

The most well known being "Blackie" a composite guitar which was sold for $959,500 at Christie's in New York on June 24th, 2004. His other favourite was "Brownie", an unmodified, all original mid 1956 guitar with which he recorded the immortal "Layla".

"'Brownie' is one of Eric Clapton's favourite guitars. Clapton said that he used 'Brownie' on the whole of the Layla album including the title track which is generally regarded as being his most famous love song of all… Clapton used 'Brownie' extensively for recordings and concerts over a number of years. Notably, on his first solo album Eric Clapton, 1970, where it shares the front cover photograph with him; and more significantly in the same year, on the whole of the Layla album where 'brownie' is again pictured on the album cover, this time on the back, photographed on the floor of Criteria Studios… In an interview with Dan Forte for Guitar World, 1989, Clapton was asked: "The Strat first became your trademark on the Eric Clapton solo album. Is that the same Strat used on 'Layla'?" He replied: Yeah, the brown one…" In an interview with Fred Stuckey printed in Guitar Player, June, 1970, Stuckey commented: "When I saw you recently with Delaney & Bonnie, I noticed you weren't using the Les Paul that you used with Cream. Clapton replied: I still play a Les Paul. But with Delaney & BonnieI use an old Stratocaster I've acquired which is really, really good - a great sound. It's just right for the kind of bag I was playing with them…" Stuckey then asked Clapton: "Have you done anything to the Stratocaster - like modify the pick-ups or have the frets shaved?" Clapton replied: "No. I just set the switch between the first and middle pick-ups. There is a little place where you can catch it so that you can get a special sound somehow. I get much more rhythm and blues or rock kind of sound that way…" (Christies New York Eric Clapton Guitar Auction, June 24th, 1999, lot #105 - $497,500).

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